Phishing

1 min read

Though Phishing has become a very common cybercrime, but we still do not understand it fully.

What is this cybercrime?

Phishing
  • It is the fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by disguising oneself as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
  • Typically carried out by email spoofing or instant messaging, it often directs users to enter personal information at a fake website which matches the look and feel of the legitimate site. Even the website’s address is similar to the original website.

Prevention

  • Always check any link before opening it.
  • Do not open any link received from an unknown source.

Solution in case of incident

  • Change all credentials (user names, passwords, etc) associated with the said link.

Other Variants

  • Smishing – Phishing done via SMS.
  • Vishing – Phishing done via VoIP.
  • Spear Phishing – Here. the attack is targeted towards an individual or an organization. This attack is usually done to obtain some particular information or when the attacker has an idea about the internals of an organisation.

For Wikipedia entry on Cybercrime, click here.

For more posts on Cybercrime, click here.

For more posts in The Cyber Cops project, click here.